India wants to boost oil imports from Brazil, says Indian Oil Minister

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – India, the world’s third-largest oil importer and consumer, is seeking to boost oil purchases from Brazil, said India’s Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on April 21 after a meeting with Brazilian Mines and Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque.

India currently imports only a fraction of its oil imports from Brazil.

“We have expressed to the distinguished minister that we are willing to increase our (imported) oil from Brazil repeatedly,” Puri said, adding that Indian companies will also be looking to boost investment in the South American country.

Indian state-owned companies Bharat Petroleum Corp and Oil and Natural Gas Corp have been investing in Brazil’s oil and gas exploration sector.

India wants to import oil from Brazil under “special long-term contracts,” a government statement released after the meeting said, without giving further details.

Albuquerque said that Brazil, which is increasing its oil production by 10% to 3.3 million barrels per day, is willing to meet India’s demand for oil.

India, which meets about 84% of its oil needs through imports, is looking for ways to reduce its spending on the product, including stepping up biofuels.

India’s state-owned fuel retailers are expanding their ethanol storage capacity by 51% in the face of its target to double the biofuel’s blend with gasoline to 20% by 2025.

Puri said that India and Brazil are cooperating in biofuels and ethanol.

Unica, an entity that represents sugar and ethanol producers in Brazil, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Society of Indian Automobile Producers to work in ethanol and flex-fuel technology.

“We believe that India and Brazil can come together to help other countries seeking to increase the use of ethanol as an automotive fuel and develop flex-fuel technology to reduce their carbon footprint,” said Evandro Gussi, executive president of Unica.

Most of India’s oil imports come from the Middle East, and by 2021, 9% of purchases came from Latin America.

India had recently increased its purchases of Russian oil, available at lower prices after some companies and countries shunned Russian oil following Western sanctions on Moscow for its military operation in Ukraine.

With information from Reuters